The Black Opal Read Online Free PDF

the Grange and he would return in the mid-afternoon with books and work to be done in preparation for the next day’s session.
    It was a very satisfactory arrangement in Mrs. Marline’s eyes, for it meant that the families met more frequently than they had before.
    Estella, Henry and Adeline were invited to the Grange to tea with Lucian and Camilla. Estella was delighted, but it made her very dissatisfied with Commonwood House, which was humble in comparison with the Grange.
    I was never asked to go. I believe Nanny Gilroy had something to do with that, and Mrs. Marline would, of course, have been in agreement with her. But I was sure the doctor would not have been if he had had any say in the matter.
    Then it changed.
    Uncle Toby paid us a visit while his ship was in port for minor repairs.
    It was, as usual, a wonderful visit. He brought me a
     
    2. present from Hong Kong. It was a jade pendant on a slender gold chain, and the pendant was decorated with signs which he told me meant “Good Luck’ in Chinese.
    I had in my possession that other pendant, which had been round my neck when I was found under the azalea bush. I often looked at it, but I never wore it. I think I felt it would remind people of my arrival and that I did not really belong here.
    Uncle Toby’s gift was different. I was enchanted not only for its promise of good fortune, but because Uncle Toby had given it to me.
    Nanny Gilroy would have said it was unsuitable for a child of my age to wear jewellery and would have ordered me to take it off, so I used to wear it hidden under my dress when she was around. I was never without it, even during the night, and the first thing I did, on waking, was to touch it and murmur “Good Luck’ while I stretched out my other hand to the musical box and listened to ” God Save the Queen’.
    Estella was very excited because she and Henry had been invited to take tea at the Grange. If the weather was fine and we were in the middle of a heat wave it was to take place on the lawn in front of the house.
    Nanny had told Sally to press Estella’s blue dress with a satin sash and the puffed sleeves. Estella must look just as well-dressed as that Camilla.
    “And prettier, too,” added Nanny.
    I watched Sally carefully pressing the dress.
    “It’s a shame they don’t ask you,” she said.
    “You’d like to go, wouldn’t you? You’d look as good as any of them.”
    “I don’t want to go,” I lied.
    “I’d rather be here.”
    “It would be nice for you,” persisted Sally.
    “And they ought to ask you. I reckon they might well … but for Nanny. 1 wouldn’t mind taking a bet on that. And then there’s Her, too.”
    By Her, she meant Mrs. Marline; and 1 was sure her conjecture was correct.
     
    Estella was duly garbed in the dress and I had to admit, though rather reluctantly, that she looked very pretty.
    I watched them from my window as they set out for the Grange, and a wild idea came to me. I had not been invited but that was no reason why I should not go.
    1 had on one occasion been inside the grounds of the Grange. Curiosity had overcome me. It had been one afternoon when I guessed the house would be at its quietest. If I were discovered, I told myself, I could say I was lost. There was a way in through a hedge round the paddock and beyond that was the shrubbery which bordered the lawn in front of the house. I had crept through the hedge and sped across the paddock to this shrubbery, from where I had a good view of the lawns and the house.
    Very fine it was of grey stone and ancient, with a turret at either end and a big gateway which I could see led into a courtyard. From the shrubbery I could have a good view of the tea-party without any one of them being aware that I was there.
    Well, if I could not be a guest, there was no reason why I should not look in on the party. So when they had left, I slipped out after them, fingering my good luck pendant to assure myself that I had that with me and that